1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible laminated surface material and, more particularly, to a flexible laminated surface material for vehicle interiors, such as seats, door trimmings and ceiling trimmings, and for building interiors including furniture, and the like. The present invention also relates to the method of producing the flexible laminated surface material.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Many types of flexible laminated surface materials comprise a polyurethane foam layer and an outer fabric material, such as a woven or knitted sheet, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 1-103400, because polyurethane foam has good cushion and voluminousness properties. However, because polyurethane foam has low strength, the outer fabric material needs to have great strength and, therefore, adds substantial cost. Further, polyurethane foam causes some difficulty in the disposal or recycle of the flexible laminated surface materials. In addition, because polyurethane foam has a structure comprising many closed cells, it has considerably low air permeability. Therefore, if a surface material comprising a polyurethane foam layer is used for a seat shell, the seat shell does not allow efficient ventilation.
To solve these problems, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 5-15899 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 4-332590 propose a vehicle interior fibrous surface material comprising a fibrous web, which substitutes for the polyurethane foam layer, and an outer material adhered to the fibrous web. However, this type of interior fibrous surface material suffers from low adhesion. The fluffy surface of the fibrous web requires a considerably large amount of adhesive to achieve a required adhesion strength between the fibrous web and the outer material. If such a large amount of adhesive is used, the texture of the obtained fibrous surface material significantly deteriorates. Further, if a low apparent-density fibrous web is used in this construction, an outer material with a great strength or an additional backing material must be used to achieve a sufficient strength of the surface material. The production cost will thus be increased. As for flame retardation, which is normally required for surface materials, flame retardation of the considerably thick and bulky fibrous web is costly.